Star Map Workshop 

Join poet Dan Beachy-Quick for an expansive two-day workshop inspired by the paintings of Charles Ross. Participants will grapple with what it means to make art of cosmic care and work towards making an art-piece (be it poem, mico-fiction, micro-essay, painting, pottery, etc.) that considers the larger mystery of the world.

Space is limited in this collaborative workshop that will take place in the Harwood galleries and studio. Basic materials provided. Ages 16+. 

Dates: August 9 & 10, 2025

Time: 9am-12pm. Harwood Studio open to participants after the workshop.

Charles Ross creates cosmic art—the stars are one of his primary cares, but not only the stars themselves. He works towards a complex understanding of cosmic pattern, and the hidden mutability in what seems, over the course of a single human life, unchanging and eternal, but is not. Drawing from the disciplines of fine art, philosophy, astronomy, and astrology, Ross is an artist who reminds us that consideration and constellation are cognate, and that to learn to think is also to draw a shape in the night sky that tells us the story of who it is we are. Using Charles Ross’s paintings as our most immediate inspiration and considering a number of fragmented texts from some of our most ancient philosophers in the Western tradition—Thales (credited with creating ancient astrology), Heraclitus, Anaximenes, and Empedocles—on our first we’ll discuss art and art-making, and work toward a generative sense of possibility for each one of us. The second day will create space for sharing and reflection with the goal of leaving with the inspiration we always seek but seldom find: an urge to make what art we make because the world needs it, and so do we. 

About Dan Beachy-Quick 

Dan Beachy-Quick is a poet, essayist, and translator, whose most recent book is How to Draw a Circle: On Reading and Writing (Michigan UP’s Poets on Poetry Series, 2024). His work has been long-listed for the National Book Award in Poetry, and supported by the Monfort, Lannan, and Guggenheim Foundations. He is Interim Chair of the English Department as Colorado State University, where he is a University Distinguished Teaching Scholar.

About Charles Ross 

Charles Ross (b. 1937, Philadelphia, PA) discovered his passion for making sculpture while studying mathematics at UC Berkeley, where he received his BA in Mathematics in 1960 and an MA in Art in 1962. Ross is a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Grant in 1999. He has also received grants from the NEA, the Thaw Charitable Trust, the McCune Charitable Foundation, The Frost Foundation, and many others for the construction of Star Axis. Ross has created 25 permanent solar spectrum artworks around the world including Solar Spectrum, at the Dwan Light Sanctuary, United World College, Montezuma, NM; Spectrum 14, Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2024; Spectrum Chamber, Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Hobart, Tasmania; Conversations with the Sun, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan; and Spectrum 8, National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Washington DC. His artworks reside in the permanent collections of numerous institutions internationally, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

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